Very Useful Information

Last night, Ken and I went to a Russia Orientation Class given by our adoption agency. This is a required class for all families who are adopting from Russia. I didn't expect the 3.5 hours would go as quickly as it did! We were lucky to have two "special quests", representatives from our agency who are from Russia (one person from the Moscow region, and one from the St. Petersburg region). They provided great insight into the adoption process from a Russian point-of-view. This gave me great reassurance that we will be well cared for throughout all points of this adoption journey. There were about 8 families including us at this class, from points as far as New Jersey and New York City! From sizing up what everyone said, Ken and I are definitely farther along in the process than the rest of the families there. This is no surprise, however, because we are waiting for siblings and our wait will be longer because of that. It did feel good to be the "veterans" of the group with all of our paper work in, and having 2.5 months of waiting under our belts!

We learned what official referral papers look like, and what kind of information we will receive from the doctor/orphanage director. We also learned that almost all children will have weird and scary sounding diagnoses included on their paperwork. We were told to take this with a grain of salt, however, as some children get labeled merely for not crying loud at birth. We also learned that our children will most likely be in the same baby home, but because they are organized by age within the orphanage, they will most likely not know they are biologically related.

We saw the basic itinerary for a Bryansk visit.

Day 1: Arrive in Moscow, rest at a hotel until 7:00pm, take the overnight train to Bryansk (7 hours), get to hotel and sleep.

Day 2: Go to Ministry of Education and officially receive referral of our children, go to orphanage and meet our children, take the 7:00pm train back to Moscow.

Day 3: Paperwork (maybe some sightseeing) in Moscow.

Day 4: Return home!

Quick, huh?

Other than this, there is no news on the adoption front. We have been waiting 2.5 months at this point. We have been told that families waiting for siblings usually have to wait 5-7 months for their first trip. So, Ken and I are still thinking that we will travel sometime this summer.

Until then...so much to do!!